Friday Prayers

Salaam and Greeting of peace from the land of the midnight sun!

I finally made it to Juma prayers today. I had pretty much given up on the mosque, but then my aunt was on the bus and saw a girl with a hijab and inquired about the mosque for me (thanks aunt D!).

Anyway so I get to Juma at 1:10 and the mosque doesn't look like much from the outside but inside it is alright, better than some I have seen. (And the parking lot looks like a taxi terminus). I go in and there are only men, and they are beyond surprised to see me. Mind you, they have seen me parading around town by foot or by bike (with a helmet and hijab, how stupid I must look!), and most of them have waved or honked at me. So, I am feeling self conscious and shy, being the only lady and I ask the first man I see if there is space for women to make Juma. So he tells me to wait a minute, and I am feeling annoyed because there should always be space for women in the masjid, shouldn't there?

So I am waiting near the entrance and more men are coming in and they are all doing a double take because this is so extremely bizarre (?), and finally, one man motions for me to come in, "sister, please come in", so I said "they told me to wait", but he just mtions again, so I go in. They set up a 'sister's area' complete with a curtain, in the 4 minutes I was waiting, and having watched the documentary "Me and the Mosque", I am feeling more annoyed that they did this. (Note to self: Stop feeling annoyed, these are sincere brothers and this is cultural, and btw it is Friday and you should feel good). So I decided to stop feeling annoyed, and decided to be amused.

So the Imam does the khutba, and I was thinking I should have come to the mosque the other Fridays, because there is something special about Juma, and it makes you feel complete and good when you go to Friday prayers. Juma recharges your spiritual batteries. When it was over, I come out of my 'tent' and the Imam asks me where I am from, so I tell him Montreal (but of course he met what country am I from...uh Canada?...I tell him that I am new in town. He gives me a prayer schedule (I wonder if he thinks I haven't been praying all this time...) and I ask him about halakas or anything for women. He doesn't know of any, but he gives me some telephone numbers of the men who are married (out of 50+ men, only 2-3 of them that are married...maybe the others have wives back home, I don't know. And before anyone even thinks about it, no thanks I am not interested if you know what I mean). Then he offered me a ride back to work, and told me if I want to come to Maghrib prayers he can come pick me up anytime (note to self: now I have 2 personal chauffeurs).

I didn't make it to Maghrib tonight, but I will try again soon inshaAllah. It appears as though I am one of the most eligible unmarried Muslim women in town...yeah, I am extremely happy about that (in case you didn't pick it up, that was said with a great deal of sarcasm)...fresh meat on the marriage market haha...